RASC eNews

RASC eNews

A sizeable portion of famed astronomer Sir John Herschel's library has turned up in Toronto! Thanks to the dedicated sleuthing of RASC historian Peter Broughton, hundreds of volumes from William Herschels' son's Collingwood library have been identified in the University of Toronto library system. Many of the volumes contain Sir John's own annotations.

Mysterious Ophiuchus

Whenever I host public viewing sessions with my telescope under a dark sky, the subject of horoscopes and astrology always comes up. For some reason most of the general public get astronomy and astrology mixed up. But I play along and ask “what was your sign”? As the person is about to give their answer, facial expressions are priceless as they blurted out, “what do you mean what WAS my sign”.

The 2013 RASC General Assembly in Thunder Bay is now concluded. An excellent time was had by all of the attendees who joined the members of the Thunder Bay Centre to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their founding as a Centre of the Society.

Our Home Galaxy

Summer is the time of year to enjoy the great outdoors whether it’s camping, fishing or gazing at the starry sky on a clear night. Sitting outside in the dark and looking up has been the past time of humans for thousands of years. No matter if you are eight or eighty; something magical occurs when we simply stare at those tiny points of lights high above our heads. At times our eyes follow a slow moving satellite as it traverses the night sky until we lose it in the earth’s shadow.

I'm very happy to inform you that the Transit of Venus event we organized at Varsity Stadium last year won two awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The news item is here:

Bootes - The Herdsman

At this time of year, the first star to appear in the darkening dusk skies is Arcturus. With a magnitude value of -0.11 Arcturus is listed as the fourth brightest star in the entire sky behind Sirius, Canopus and Rigel Kentaurus. It is also designated as the Alpha star in the constellation Bootes the Herdsman. A technique to locate this K2 sun is to find the handle of the Big Dipper and simply follow the arc to Arcturus. At the beginning of the month, it crosses the meridian at 10:30 local time.

Toronto, Canada (May 17, 2013) – Join members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) when they host a rare lecture tour by famous Canadian astronomer and comet-discover, David H. Levy.

David H. Levy, internationally renowned Canadian astronomer and science writer is famous for his co-discovery in 1993 of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which collided with the planet Jupiter in 1994. Levy has discovered 22 comets, and written over 34 books. The asteroid 3673 Levy was named in his honour.